Construction and Engineering Solicitors
IBB’s dedicated construction and engineering team provides cost-effective and tailored legal solutions to a wide range of clients including banks, insurers, occupiers, property developers, house builders, main contractors, specialist sub-contractors, engineering companies, logistics companies, construction and engineering professionals, local government and not-for-profit organisations.
We are recognised by our peers and praised by our clients for our expertise and our ability to deliver clear and commercially focused advice. Our lawyers are experienced enough to have seen most things before, and quick to think of solutions if they haven’t. That’s why IBB’s construction and engineering team has become the preferred choice for many experienced purchasers of construction and engineering legal services in the UK today.
Advice on non-contentious and contentious matters
In non-contentious matters we work closely with IBB’s leading commercial property, residential development and commercial services teams. This work embraces procurement advice, contract drafting, and general advisory work – we find that early strategic and tactical advice is a very effective way to add value to our clients’ projects.
In contentious matters we have a proven track record of successfully resolving construction and engineering disputes. We employ various methods to achieve the best outcomes for our clients including mediation, adjudication, expert determination, arbitration, and court proceedings (usually in the Technology and Construction Court). When the need arises we work closely with IBB’s highly rated real estate, intellectual property and commercial dispute resolution teams, and we have close working relationships with some of the best construction and engineering barristers practising in the UK today.
Our services include:
- Procurement and building the team
- Development loan facilities
- Development agreements
- Framework agreements
- Building contracts and professional appointments
- Contracts for the supply, installation and maintenance of specialist mechanical and electrical plant
- Engineering contracts
- Warranties, third party rights and reliance letters
- Guarantees and bonds
- Crane oversailing and scaffolding licences
- Facility maintenance agreements
- Due diligence audits for banks and other financial institutions
- In-house training
- Construction and engineering dispute resolution including:
- Adjudications
- Expert determinations
- Mediation
- Arbitration
- Court proceedings
Call us for more details, or email us at construction@ibblaw.co.uk.
During the latter part of the Twentieth Century, it came to be recognised that legal matters concerning the world of construction and engineering were becoming more complicated. Contracts were becoming more elaborate, major industry bodies began to produce their own standard forms of contract, a body of reported court cases began to grow, and legislation targeted at the construction and engineering industries began to appear on the statute books. As a result, the practice of law as it applies to construction and engineering projects came to be seen as an endeavour demanding specialist knowledge and expertise.
Law firms and barristers chambers developed expertise in the fields of construction law and engineering law, and organisations such as the Society of Construction Law were founded to promote education, study and research for the public benefit. Specialist arbitrators presided over the resolution of construction and engineering disputes, and the court service responded to the demand for specialist judges by founding the Technology and Construction Court (previously the Official Referees’ Court) in 1998.
The 1990s also saw the enactment of legislation imposing special rules that apply to all UK construction contracts and a fast-track form of dispute resolution known as adjudication. Today the practice of construction and engineering law is highly developed and demands a specialised skill set.
